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Egyptian Documentation and Information Center for Agriculture (EDICA)

 

 
 
Egyptian Documentation and
Information Center for Agriculture (EDICA)
  
ORIGIN and HISTORY
Within the agreement conducted between the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture, FAO and the Canadian International Development Research Center (IDRC) to create a national agricultural documentation and information system in Egypt, EDICA was established in October 1975, as a Department under the Foreign Agricultural Relations Administration, to represent Egypt at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations information systems AGRIS (the International Information System for Agricultural Sciences and Technology) and CARIS (Current Agricultural Research Information System). In 1991 EDICA was upgraded as a General Directorate.

 

OBJECTIVES
EDICA major mandate is to establish Egypt’s National Agricultural Scientific Memory and support the Government Agricultural Development plans, by disseminating knowledge on agricultural research and transfer of modern agricultural technologies to user communities at universities, scientific research institutes and Agricultural Scientific Societies in Egypt and abroad.
 
STRUCTURE
EDICA consists of four main Departments as follows:
 
1.         Department of Scientific Documentation:
¨      Concerned with technical processing (cataloguing, subject indexing) of Egyptian agricultural literature (including scientific journals; publications of workshops, symposiums, conferences; theses and dissertations; reports; project documents; standards and specifications; patents; multimedia; etc).
¨      In technical processing EDICA implements the latest techniques of the AGRIS Application Profile, which allows sharing of information across dispersed bibliographic systems and provides guidelines on recommended best practices for cataloguing and subject indexing.
¨      Quality control and revision of data on records according to international standards.
¨      Processing of thesis (Master, PhD Degrees) at the premises of the universities.
¨      Proof reading of the research abstracts to be included in the metadata of the system.
 
2.         Department of Scientific Publishing and Information Services:
 
¨      Concerned with making agricultural information available for the end users through Retrospective search and Document Delivery Services.
¨      Providing users with bibliographical data and research copies.
¨      Supplying users with scientific agricultural abstracts from available data bases.
¨      Setting up special searches from electronic on line databases.
¨      Establish specialized databases for Research Institutions.
The Department of Scientific Publishing is composed of two sections:
o                   Retrospective Search Section
o                   Document Delivery Section (the Storehouse Egyptian agricultural literature)
3.         Department of Acquisition and Document Tracing:
¨      Concerned with setting up the policy of Egyptian literature collection development and procurement of scientific journals and documents from various stakeholders.
¨      Tracing of conferences and meetings to acquire the resulting publications.
¨      Monitoring and controlling the pace of process flow among various Departments through registry tracing.
4.         Department of Computer:
¨      Concerned with the input of records and computer scanning of documents' full texts.
¨      Databases construction and maintenance.
¨      Providing Egyptian metadata to AGRIS, FAO and retrieval of world data in exchange.
EDICA provides significant library services, as the Library to which it belong, includes diversified volumes on various domains of agricultural sciences, in addition to a special collection on Computer and information sciences as well as scientific taxonomic and dictionary materials to serve its functions.
EDICA includes in its structure the Department of Financial and administrative Affairs, which is concerned mainly with the collection of services fees and monitoring of accounts and the follow up of supplies' purchase and procurement, in addition to personnel affairs.
Target Groups
¨      Research workers at research institutions
¨      Postgraduate students at academic institutions
¨      Decision makers
¨      Research institutions local and abroad
¨      Extension workers
¨      University students
Contact Person:
Eng. Ahmad N. Nassar
Director General, EDICA

 

 

DUTIES of the Egyptian Documentation and Information Center for Agriculture
(EDICA)
  • Collect, process, establish and maintain Egyptian agricultural bibliographic databases with a view to integrating national databases with international agricultural information systems and contribute to local, regional and international agricultural information systems.
  • Represent the agricultural sector at the Egyptian National Scientific and Technical Information Network (ENSTINET) of the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT).
  • Provide agricultural information services from local, regional and international sources to Egyptian users in various domains of agriculture, food and environment to augment the agricultural development plan to attain higher levels of agricultural income efficiency which represent a significant pillar in the national economy.
  • Quality control of data introduced into the Near East Regional Agricultural Knowledge Information Network (NERAKIN) and applying international standards on the National Agricultural Information Management System (NARIMS).
  • Represent the Egyptian part in the Current Agricultural Information System (CARIS), which is an international cooperative information system entrusted with the collection, processing and dissemination of information on research activities in developing countries. EDICA has contributed in applying this system at the level of agricultural research projects.
  • Represent the Egyptian part in AGRIS (the International Information System for the Agricultural Sciences and Technology), where EDICA monitors, collects and process the Egyptian agricultural literature in its various types and forms, hence it conveys them in the form of bibliographic data to the AGRIS Central Processing Unit at FAO, which in turn integrates them with data input from world AGRIS resource centers to form the International agricultural database.

Eng. Ahmad N. Nassar
General Dirctor

Last Updated : 4/2010 Copyright@2009 Foreign Agricultural Relations Developed by Dotcom Egypt